Imaginative Play
Play that is imaginative and creative will help the toddler to use their mind to find solutions to problems. One of the most important parts of imaginative play is for the child to pretend to be someone else or in different situations.
This type of play helps promote a toddler’s learning through using role play to develop their imagination. They will also be developing their emotional and social skills, sharing skills, manipulative skills, language and communication skills through this type of play. Not only this but it helps a child build on his or her self confidence and feelings of security.

Kids Play and Imagination
Through imaginative play, a child might run around, pretending he or she is a horse or a dog, an aeroplane or a train. At 3-4 years, they often do this on their own. At other times, an adult could encourage imaginative play so the child might explore new situations and fantasy worlds. This will help the child to explore their feelings and the world around them in a safe, supervised environment.
Children at this age are at Piaget’s preoperational stage. During the years from 2 to 6 Piaget saw the evidence of symbol use in many aspects of child’s behaviour. Children this age beginning to pretend in their play for example at age 2 or 3 or 4 a broom may become a horse, or a block may become a train.
Imaginative play, through building towers out of bocks, talking to and feeding their dolls, making tea with the tea set and dressing in grown-up clothes is important and should never be classed as trivial… Neither should soft toys or dolls be rejected as inappropriate for any age of either sex.

Examples of Imaginative Play Activities
Ask the children to make a pirate ship out of large cardboard boxes. They might make telescopes or binoculars out of kitchen tubes and a flag for their boat out of newspaper. Hats could be made and painted for them to wear while they’re at sea in their imaginary boat. How does this kind of play help in a child’s learning? As the children play with each other, they will be using their communication and language skills.

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1. Preheat your family “get-together on Sunday” mood to max (mark 6).
2. Place the Sunday chaos on the bottom, draw the curtains and spread the summer sunshine evenly
3. In a happy family car add the /secret ingredient/, tight well to the back seat, mix with a handful of crayons and 10 drops of fun, then whisk it, shake it, beat it… until stiff.
4. Add the self-raising mood and the adventure spirit, a little at a time, whisking to incorporate, and then beat in the pinch of travel wind until well combined.
5. Spoon into your day and bake for a few hours – until golden on top and overflowing with happiness. Sprinkle with the “have-a-great-day” spell and enjoy!

Have you guessed what the secret ingredient is? – Please share your suggestions below and stay tuned – something very exciting will follow soon!

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We’ll be tweeting about our challenges when travelling with kids, how to make the travel even more exciting for the children, so it can be enjoyable and less stressful for the parents. Most importantly, let’s talk about how to make our trips safe for the kids and the whole family!

Join us to share your travel stories, to get some great road safety tips, or just to have fun, chat to other parents and WIN great prizes from Graco!

How to join our #kidstravelsafe party?

1. Log-in to your Twitter account (or create one if you don’t have an account yet)
2. Type#kidstravelsafe in the “Search” field on “Home” tab. Click on “Save this search” so it’s easy for you to find it
3. Click on your #kidstravelsafe saved search on 27^th June, Sunday, at 9pm GMT and join the party!
4. Follow us on Twitter: @greenkiddie and @GracoBaby_UK

When I ask a question, tweet the answer to me and make sure you always include the hash-tag #kidstravelsafe.

We’ll be giving away three beautiful and comfy Graco changing bags. The Graco Sporty Bag comes complete with changing mat and messy bag. It features – handy pockets, includes plastic changing mat, nappy wipes box and leak proof bag, insulated pockets and is machine washable.

Don’t miss it and tell your friends to join in, too!Let’s prove we care about our kids’ safety!

Child Safety Week is the Child Accident Prevention Trust’s flagship community education campaign. It aims to raise awareness of the number of accidents that seriously injure or kill children and how to prevent them.

Get Ready for the Road Ahead with Graco! Make your smart car-seat selection and learn how to make your trip better for the whole family!

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Over 70% of parents believe kids tend to get more infections when hygiene in the nursery is poor, but only 7% claim hygiene in their child’s nursery is outstanding. These are some of the results revealed in a recent parents’ survey, run by GreenKiddie.co.uk. The survey is part of GreenKiddie’s national campaign “Close2Nature” for better children’s health and well-being in nurseries. Close2Nature campaign aims to provide easy-to-use tips and advice for daycare providers and help them adopt our eco-friendly strategy for their premises in order to help with improving children’s health.

For this campaign GreenKiddie is partnering with Change4Life initiative run by the Department of Health, and focuses on 5 main areas:

• Provide better food and nutrition at nurseries
• Reduce toxics in the daycare premises
• Help children stay active
• Improve hygiene in daycare premises
• Help nurseries become more eco-friendly

There are over 850,000 children under 5 years of age in the UK attending either part-time or full-time daycare (DCSN, 2009). This means that nurseries’ environment plays crucial role for children’s health. Making nurseries more eco-friendly and encouraging them to reduce chemicals and toxics at their premises will promote better baby and children’s health and well-being, reducing the infections and straightening their immunity.”

The survey, based on the 514 parents’ replies, reveals that 18% of kids in nurseries are not having their 5 a day portions of fruits and vegetables, based on food being served at the nursery. Fish, helping children’s brain development, is being served on a weekly basis in only half of the nurseries, and 17% of kids are not being served the extremely important for kids’ growth high in protein food like meat and eggs. Some 15% of nurseries provide kids with very unsatisfactory amount of milk and diary products during their 10-hour stay at the premises, so kids are not able to get the calcium they need for this age. As little as 2 out of 100 nurseries serve organic food in every meal, where 15% of nurseries have never sourced organic produce for the kids. Home-made food has never been served to every tenth nursery, and in these cases processed food is what kids eat on a regular basis. Every third nursery adds sugar and/or salt in kids’ food, and only 4% follow the guidelines for avoiding salt in cooking for kids under 3-years old.

The eco-friendly efforts are outstanding in only 3 out of 100 nurseries, and are qualified as poor and unsatisfactory in 15% of cases. It looks like great percentage of nurseries are doing great when it comes to recycling, reusing and using eco-friendly craft-materials (42%), although improvement others is needed. When it comes to soaps, washing powders and cleaning materials about 20% will not even try to be eco-friendly. Most of the above soaps, cleaning sprays and washing powders contain harsh chemicals which not only reflect the environment, but are also toxic and irritating for the sensitive kids’ skin. Around the same percent of nurseries (20-25%) are not making any efforts to use BPA-Free baby/kids food equipment, biodegradable or cloth nappies (although in most of them parents are advised to provide nappies in their choice). About the same percent of nursery staff are willing to “go green”, but don’t seem to have enough information and knowledge on how to do that, according to parents.

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The Better Nursery Food Campaign aims to increase the pressure on Government by highlighting examples of nurseries where parents are dissatisfied with the nutritional standards of nursery food. Whether it’s a nursery serving junk food, or food with artificial additives and e-numbers, or poor food generally, we are asking parents and nursery workers to post their experiences on the Facebook page and sign the petition to take to government.

The experiences from mums and dads will enable the Better Nursery Food Now campaigns team to step up the pressure on Government to put in place nutritional standards that will cover all nurseries, guaranteeing better food in nurseries.

Just to remind you that, according to the report Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie – exposing the truth about nursery food:

• There are no clear nutritional standards for UK nurseries.
• Some nurseries spend as little as 25p per meal, per child.
• Colourings and additives, not allowed in manufactured foods for children, were regularly being permitted in nurseries.
• Foods banned or restricted in primary and secondary schools – like chips, sweets and chocolate – are still regularly served in nurseries.
• No Government Department was willing to take responsibility for the quality and monitoring of nursery food.

BBC 1 Panorama programme on Monday 25 January at 8.30pm will be investigating “What Is Really In Our Kid’s Food”. The programme has discovered that one in five children starts school already overweight and, according to the latest research, children who are fat by five are likely to stay that way. Shelley Jofre investigates the food being dished up to pre-schoolers at nurseries and at home. There’s a rapidly growing market in ready meals specifically for toddlers, but are they really a healthy option? The programme looks behind the marketing claims

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Avocados: Pound for pound avocados provide more heart healthy monounsaturated fat, fibre, vitamin E, folic acid and potassium than any other fruits. As if this was not enough, they are also the number one fruit source of beta-sitosterol, a substance that can reduce total cholesterol. They also supersede other fruits in the antioxidant lutein, which, in studies has shown to protect people from cataracts. Lutein has also been linked with protecting your cardiovascular system and preventing prostate cancer. Avocados are very easily digested, which makes them ideal for people that have problems digesting fatty foods.

Bananas: Bananas are slightly higher in energy than other fruits but the calories come mainly from carbohydrate; excellent for refuelling before, during or after exercise. Great first baby food, too; just mashed them well and add some of the baby milk to get the right consistence.
Bananas contain phytochemicals known as antioxidants. These antioxidants protect cells in the body against damage from free radicals that can cause heart disease and cancer.
Bananas are also jam-packed with potassium that helps lower blood pressure, and vitamin B6 for healthy skin and hair.

Blueberries, Cranberries and Blackcurrants: They not only look and taste great but blueberries contain antioxidants known as anthocyanidins, some of the strongest antidotes to oxidative stress, which many scientists believe to be the cause of aging in humans. They are great immune-stimulants. Also they are not real berries, so you can introduce them in your baby’s diet as soon as 8-9 months.

Broccoli: If the other foods here are “super” foods then broccoli should be a “mega-super” food. Researchers are finding a wealth of healthy compounds in this vegetable, which include two power anti-cancer substances, sulforaphane and indole-3-carbinol. Sulforaphane destroys any carcinogenic compounds that you have ingested and then it creates enzymes that eat up any carcinogens left over from that reaction. Broccoli is also a good source of beta-carotene and potassium, which helps lower your risk of heart disease. Many therapists suggest eating broccoli at least three times a week and now we know why.

Garlic: Numerous clinical trials have shown garlic to be an excellent cancer fighter – studies suggest that it has the ability to prevent development of cancers of the breast, colon, skin, prostate, stomach and oesophagus. Garlic also helps stimulate the immune system by encouraging the growth of natural killer cells, which directly attack cancer cells. It also has the ability to kill the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, a major cause of ulcers and stomach cancer. Introduce garlic to baby’s diet slowly and wait until he/she is at least 12 months old.

Pumpkin: Pumpkins and squash are packed full of beta carotene (only carrots and sweet potatoes have more) and are the number one source of alpha carotene, a cancer inhibitor potentially more powerful than beta-carotene. They also provide vitamins B5, C, E, potassium, calcium and fibre. And don’t throw out the seeds, as they are an excellent source of zinc, essential fatty acids, and are a great source of plant protein. Cooked and mashed pumpkins are great first food for babies! And they love them because of their natural sweet taste.

Salmon: One of the best oily fish providing an excellent source of Omega 3. Omega 3 fatty acids have been linked with protecting against breast and other cancers and relieving autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. Omega 3 is also essential for a brain as well as heart health, and has been linked with accelerated learning and attention span in children and helping mental functions in the elderly. Other oily fish include herring, tuna and mackerel.

Whole Grains: Several epidemiological studies show that people who consume large amounts of whole grains every day have a lower risk of heart disease. Whole grains include brown rice, millet, oats and wholegrain bread. Population research also suggests that whole grains help prevent colon, breast and prostate cancer. The complex carbohydrates and fibre slow the release of blood sugar providing a great slow energy source. Fibre can also help to prevent constipation, encourages the growth of “friendly “bacteria in the gut, and aids the removal of toxins from the body.

Yogurt: Yogurt is an easily absorbed source of calcium. It’s also a useful milk substitute for people who can’t digest large amounts of the milk sugar, lactose.
Yogurt has long been credited with a range of therapeutic benefits, many of which involve the health of the large intestine and the relief of gastrointestinal upsets.
The bacteria Lactobacillus GG, added to some yoghurt, are not digested, and reach the large intestine intact where they top up the other friendly bacteria living there.

Read more about how to fight Swine Flu naturally and what to include in Natural First Aid Kit.

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According to England’s Department for Children, Schools and Families, it is a legal requirement in all childcare settings, including childminders, nurseries and day care, that where children are provided with meals, snacks or drinks, these must be healthy, balanced and nutritious.

But what happens in practice? – A small per cent of UK nurseries were found to be spending as little as 25p a day. Oil-rich fish such as salmon, or sardines were only served in 8% of them.

Parents expect the food their children eat at nursery to meet regulatory and nutritional guidelines, and not to include additives unsuitable for young children. But one fifth of the parents, taking part in a recent survey, described the food at their nursery as poor or mediocre.

Organic foods are more nutritious, and they contain higher levels of vitamin C and essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and iron as well as antioxidants important for skin, cancer-fight and overall health. Cooking with organic ingredients is the only way to reduce the chemicals your baby or toddler is exposed to. Go to Why Go Organic section for further information: http://www.greenkiddie.co.uk/Goorganic.php, and get some homemade healthy recipe ideas here: http://www.greenkiddie.co.uk/Recipes.php

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